This year marks a milestone anniversary for the UW: the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation hits the century mark. On June 22, 1925, the university’s board of regents approved a plan to create WARF, and on November 14, 1925, WARF filed its articles of organization with Wisconsin’s secretary of state.

First, some clarity: WARF isn’t the same as WFAA, the Wisconsin Foundation and Alumni Association. It’s easy to confuse the two organizations, as their names share three words. They even share some history: George Haight 1899, who served as the first president of WARF’s board of trustees in 1925, was also (in 1945) the first board chair for the organization now known as WFAA. Haight was also the president of his graduating class and served as president of the alumni association — he was a very active Badger.

WARF’s job is to help UW researchers acquire patents for the things they invent, and then to license those patents so that the inventions get out in the world and help people. You have likely heard of some of those inventions: Harry Steenbock’s process for enriching foods with vitamin D, which essentially cured rickets; Karl Link 1922, MS1923, PhD1925’s warfarin, which is now the most prescribed blood-thinner medication in the world; the UW Solution, which preserves organs for transplant. The brilliant idea behind WARF is that it takes the royalties from licensing agreements and then invests them to provide funding for new research at UW–Madison. This year, WARF gave UW researchers $159.8 million in support.

Here are just a few examples that show the range of work WARF is supporting:

Happy 100th birthday to WARF — on whichever day they celebrate. Here’s hoping its next century is as productive as its first.

On, Wisconsin!

Alisa Robertson ’94, MBA’03
President and CEO
Wisconsin Foundation and Alumni Association
The UW Now Weekly